BILLINGS, MONT. – With his convention speech a day away, Barack Obama is sharpening his attacks on John McCain on the red meat issues that excite Democrats as he makes his way to Denver.

“Do we have a president who gets that veterans are struggling every day,” he asked a small crowd at a riverfront park here, “or do we have somebody who doesn’t get it?”

“Do we want somebody who is not going to do anything to make college more affordable?”

“Do you want somebody who wants to privatize Social Security or do you want somebody who understands it’s the most important social program we have to keep our senior citizens out of poverty?”

Obama said McCain has been “asleep at the switch” on energy issues — the latest in a long line of attacks that could subtly refer to McCain’s age.

The hard hits from the candidate come amid criticism from some Democratic operatives that the Democratic convention hasn’t done enough to bloody up McCain, with so much emphasis on reintroducing Obama’s biography and navigating the Obama/Hillary Clinton rift.